Incoherent Fragments
by SpaceCat97
Summary: No one remembered him. But Mabel Pines had always felt that something was missing. Her first summer away from home, visiting her great uncle in Gravity Falls, seemed to strengthen her suspicions that something had been taken from her. She wanted to find out what that was - and then she wants to get it back.
1. Prologue: Something Wrong

Even before she was really aware of herself or her surroundings, Mabel Pines had always felt a strong sense of wrongness. There was an emptiness always beside her as she grew up, an only child. It was strange and abnormal to her, and yet she had no idea why that was. As a baby, she would cry and fuss whenever the feeling became especially strong, and even as she grew up through toddler years and started into childhood, she would find herself unhappy in between her times of smiles and crafts and color.

Once, when she was no older than six, she asked her parents if she ever had a sibling - perhaps one that was now in Heaven. Both had chuckled at her childish question and gently told her that, no, she did not have a sibling, and she never had one either. The answer filled her with a worse sense of just wrong. Wrong, wrong, all _wrong_. She wanted to insist that they were wrong, and that she did have a sibling, but at such a young age, she did not question it further.

The wrong was so pervasive in her mind that, at eight, she decided to do something about it. She was artistically inclined, after all. She could make true anything she wanted to, should she set her mind to it. And so, that was when the name first came up, coupled with a very detailed drawing and explanation: Dipper. Mabel's imaginary friend. But this was no ordinary imaginary friend, she had insisted. He wasn't imaginary at all, she said, and he was her twin brother. Her parents worried, but eventually decided to 'let a child be a child' and allowed her time to work through the phase.

They didn't count on it lasting for almost four years. "Dipper" went everywhere with Mabel Pines. She set a place for him at the dinner table, and buckled him into seat next to her in the car, and even tracked his height on the frame of the door, right beside her own. When her parents refused to give her imaginary twin a bed of his own, Mabel took it upon herself to give hers up as many nights as she could get away with it. Most of the time, "Dipper" ended up with a sleeping bag and a stuffed animal for a pillow, but one way or another Mabel always ended up "with Dipper" sometime in the night.

Of course Mabel was teased for having an imaginary friend late in elementary and starting into middle school. The other children said imaginary friends were for babies, but Mabel was seemingly unaffected by their accusations. She took every insult with a smile or a giggle and returned it with a compliment that confused and flustered her peers. Only once did she ever snap at a classmate at recess for insulting her "little bro," and no one ever bothered her about it again.

Then, all of a sudden, she was twelve, and school was out, and mom and dad decided she should visit her great uncle in Oregon. Needless to say, she was surprised, but she didn't complain too terribly much. It sounded like an adventure! So, she packed her bags in a single evening and prepared herself for the trip from Piedmont, California, to Gravity Falls, Oregon. On the bus ride there, she talked excitedly with "Dipper" for a while, ignoring the looks from the driver far up front. The trip was long and tiring, and she switched buses twice, but it was worth it in the end to see the gigantic pine trees stretching up to the sky.

She set her bags down at the edge of the parking lot to her great uncle's home and took a deep breath. She let the air out in a happy, rushed sigh, grinning and surveying her surroundings. It wasn't what she expected, but it wasn't a bad feeling she got from the place. She really liked it, actually.

Gravity Falls was the first thing she could remember that felt _right_. Really, really **_right_**.

Now Mabel Pines was drunk on the feeling and determined to find what else could feel the same way.

* * *

 **Yes, I know I should be working on other things, but I've spent the past week and a half watching Gravity Falls. I'm four years late to the band wagon, but I'm totally enthralled, I tell you. Firstly, I'd like to let you guys know that I do indeed still exist, and with a new moniker, no less! I've been busy with college classes and getting some things off my to-watch/to-read lists, and I'm also avoiding some sort of mental breakdown(?), so that's been fun! I also finally got involved in my community theater, so memorizing my lines for the play will take time up.**

 **To my current followers and those to come: check out my side blog for writing, scribesandscribbles . tumblr . com (obviously without spaces - what is with 's thing about links?), for updates, and feel free to send me a message, especially if I don't say something at least once a week. I'm trying to keep that up to date to keep you guys informed rather than leaving everyone in the dark. Please direct all questions about other works to that, thank you.**

 **As for this, I'm marking it as complete, but I do have future ideas for it. I don't know if I'll get to it or not, but I'm really hoping I do. I may just pick one thing (likely this, just because it's my most current idea) and try to finish it. Get something done. I don't have that sense of fulfillment yet for having accomplished a large, finished task. It's been three years since I started writing fanfiction - it's time I finished something already, I say.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading! Cookies for those who actually read my note here. See you guys at the next update!**


	2. Chapter 1: The Mystery Shack

"Whoa! This room is awesome!" Mabel dropped her bags once again just inside the doorway of the attic space and rushed over to flop down on the bed pushed against the right wall. She turned over and hugged the pillow, giggling as dust tickled her nose. She honestly felt that the attic was large enough for two people her size - it was much too big for her alone, at the very least. There was even a second bed, and Mabel felt a flower bloom in her chest knowing that Dipper had a bed of his own finally. Surely that would make his summer a little better! The spoil-sport was cynical about the coming months. When she asked her great uncle about the spare bed, Stan replied that he had no where else to put it.

"The attic was as good a place as any," he told her with a shrug. He left her to settle, excusing himself at the sound of the bell in the gift shop, calling down to the other two workers in the shop. Finally, Mabel got up off the bed and started arranging and unpacking her things. Her trunk-suitcase of clothes was shoved to the foot of the bed, opened, and left, the lid resting against a slanting support beam. The drawers of her bedside table were promptly filled with yarn and other knitting supplies. It took her three minutes to close each one, and even then a few loose threads and half-finished sweaters stuck out in the open. Finally, she procured a few posters from her second bag and pinned them up in a collage on the wall beside her claimed bed.

"Isn't this great, Dipper?" she asked. Though silence was her answer, she imagined a sarcastic albeit somewhat-muted agreement. "Oh, don't be like that! We're gonna have fun! Grunkle Stan is nice, and he has a nice big house-shop-museum-place, and the woods are going to be awesome to explore! Don't worry - I packed plenty of extra bug spray. No icky bugs can withstand our protective shields!"

For a moment, with silence still being her answer, Mabel felt a sudden onslaught of that feeling again. She swallowed past the hard lump in her throat and forced a shaky laugh, struggling in conjuring her imaginary twin back into existence on the other bed. She took her time with defining his features in her mind. His short, brown, almost cow-licked hair. Brown eyes. A frame too thin to allow him to be a sport's player. A face almost just like hers - no metal on his teeth. She imagined him looking kind of glum, unhappy at having been sent away for no apparent reason. His gaze, in her mind, was downcast, and his arms were crossed to hunch his shoulders. Mabel jumped off her bed, her cheery demeanor returning with full force.

"No pouting!" she declared to the empty bed across the room. "This summer will be great! I guarantee it!"

* * *

"I know Mister Pines said you didn't have any siblings, but I just really feel like there should be two of you," the handyman commented vaguely, releasing Mabel's hand from shaking it. His seriousness in saying the statement could not be judged. His thirteen-year-old listener nodded solemnly when he said, "You know what I mean, dude? You've got enough sunshine for two people right there. That's a blessing."

"You're so sweet! Thank you, Soos!" Mabel replied, her grin brightening. The braces on her teeth twinkled as she showed them off to the world.

"Aw, man, metal mouth," the red-head at the counter groaned. Mabel turned her attention to the teenager, tilting her head curiously. From what she could remember, her great uncle had called her Wendy. "Dang, that's gotta suck. Y'know, I had a friend who had braces for a while. Said they practically pulled her teeth apart and made her gums all bloody? I also heard they're terrible with magnets. How's that working out for ya?"

"It's actually not that bad!" Mabel answered cheerily, sliding over to the counter and leaving Soos to his own work. "They're just braces. It's a cosmetic thing. And it'll help keep my teeth happy in the future, according to the orthodental guy."

"Eh, I think the word's orthodontist, but whatever." Wendy shrugged and returned part of her attention to her magazine. "And hey, welcome to Gravity Falls. You here to help Mister Pines out with the shop?"

"Uh-huh! And to make sweaters and make friends and explore in the woods!"

"The woods? Why would you want to do that?"

"Because it's fun!" Wendy responded with another shrug, apparently not thinking there was anything particularly glamorous about the forest surrounding a majority of the dinky old town.

"Fair enough. Just watch out for bears. And ticks. And weird stuff you can't identify. Oh, and loosers hanging out and crying about lost loves or something. Although I'm not sure why they don't just do that in the cemetery..." Mabel felt that she had officially lost the teen's focus, so she explored the gift shop. Vaguely, she heard Wendy continue her own musings: "Maybe Robbie chases them off? ... Nah."

"Hey, kid, paws off the merchandise," Stan's gravelly drifted from the museum door as he appeared, apparently finished giving his tour as Mr. Mystery. The eye patch he wore over one lens was flipped up to allow him to see for a moment. He was followed by a small group of starry-eyed tourists. This group dispersed as Stan announced the end of the tour, and they began perusing the nick-knacks of the gift shop, seeking souvenirs from the trip to the tourist trap. Mabel watched her Grunkle work. He wove in between the visitors, lifting items into view to tantalize them or suggest an item to buy. He had an odd way of speaking to them - something blunt or outright rude, but the visitors didn't seem to realize. They were mesmerized by the trinkets he tried to convince them to buy for a far too expensive price. She spent ten minutes watching before she stepped in with her friendly demeanor, mimicking him to an extent in the way she exaggerated the shop's wares. At first, Stan looked like he would protest her method, but with his watchful eye over her, he left her to it and returned to his own swindling. By the time another hour passed, Mabel had convinced at least three tourists to not only consider, but also buy twice what their original plans might have been.

"Ha, ha, ha! You're a natural, kid!" Stan said, slapping his knee. "Suckers! They don't even realize what hit 'em!" Faintly, Mable thought she could hear one tourist complaining about the head falling off of its bobble. Stan crossed his arms and nodded thoughtfully, glancing down at the ever-smiley Mabel with a look that was obviously trying not too appear too proud of her. "Not bad, kid. Try not to get too good, though. I don't want to have to start paying you." Mabel thought about giving him a cheeky response courtesy of "Dipper", but instead just squinted and let her grin widen just a bit further.

"Aye aye, Grunkle Stan!" she called with a smart salute. Stan Pines appeared taken aback by the nickname.

"Grunkle?" he asked gruffly, acting as if the word tasted worse than rotten peaches. "How the heck did you come up with that?"

"Great and Uncle!" Mabel explained enthusiastically. She lifted a finger on each hand to demonstrate each term, then slid them together. "You're my great uncle, but trying to say that all the time turns into something tedious and boring. So, I put the words together and came up with Grunkle!" The adult looked at her, a bit surprised at first as she lifted her arms in a big finish to the example. Then he let it slide with a shrug.

"Fair enough."

* * *

 **So, I'm wondering: should I stick to short and sweet with chapters to take a shorter amount of time between updates? Or should I take longer and try to get more in a chapter? Do you guys want me to move the plot along a bit faster, or let it move more like the first season did? Of course, this is all assuming that I do manage to do more with this.  
Thanks to all of my readers, followers, and reviewers! I really appreciate you guys!  
**

 **See you next update!  
-Baxy**


	3. Chapter 2: The Book Titled 3

"Grunkle Stan! I'm gonna go exploring outside!" Mabel grabbed the knob of the front door, a small bag of "exploration supplies" over one shoulder. Clad in new hiking boots, a short skirt, and one of her very own, home-knitted sweaters, she was ready for adventuring on her fourth day in Gravity Falls. The first three had been settling in, and thankfully Stan hadn't tried to get her to work much in the shop. Yet. She had a feeling her cheapskate Grunkle would no doubt take advantage of a free worker.

"Yeah, yeah, don't die out there." Stan waved her off while not taking his eyes away from restocking the bobble-heads. "Oh hey, and while you're out." A hammer, a bag of nails, and a few boards of wood cut vaguely in the shape of arrows were dropped unceremoniously at her feet. "Hang these signs in the dark and scary part of the forest for me, would ya? I don't have enough customers coming from that direction. Probably got lost and don't know where we are. Ha! They should be spending their money here; not at some other place. These signs won't leave any room for excuses." Mabel decided to humor her great uncle and cheerily took the boards and mounting supplies along with her, nails and hammer in her bag and signs under one arm.

"Goin' out, Mabel?" Wendy paused to wipe her brow, an ax resting on her shoulder. A pile of round logs rested slightly behind her while split wood rested on either side of the stump she stood before.

"Yep! Grunkle Stan asked me to hang these up." She lifted the signs by their strings, letting them clatter against one another.

"Don't get lost!" the older teen warned, picking up another log in one hand an balancing it on the stump. With a strong hand, she brought the ax down on the unsuspecting log and split it down the center.

"I won't!" she assured, waving a farewell to Soos as well when he stepped around the house. She didn't wait any longer, sure that if she stayed, someone would attempt to stop her and gain her help in some other task. She did not want to postpone her plans any further than she already had.

Mabel's trek was accompanied by bird song and a gentle breeze that caused her hair to tickle her neck and shoulders. Without a very particular place to go, Mabel picked a direction and simply started walking, knowing that "the dark and scary part of the forest" could literally be anywhere that wasn't in the direction of town. Mabel wasn't scared of the forest, though. She decided that Grunkle Stan was just an old cat. This thought led her to imagining Stan as a cat, and she was thrown into a fit of giggles.

"Meow!" she said to herself once settling. She cast a glance over her shoulder to find the Mystery Shack far out of sight. With a nod, she set the boards down and dug through her bag to grab a nail and the hammer. Then she started on her task, tapping the nail into a stout-looking, but leafless tree. Once done, she hung the sign to point towards the shack, nodded in satisfaction, and picked up the boards again, moving on only to stop a dozen paces to nail up the next sign. As she worked, she hummed a cheery tune to herself, bobbing her head to the music in her head. Preoccupied as she was, she totally forgot to conjure her twin again. "Dipper," for the moment, seemed to be the furthest thing from her mind for a while.

However, after half of the signs had been nailed up, and the song died into fading notes, Mabel slowed. She put both hands on a tree and looked around. That _feeling_ was returning again. The dizzying sickness that told her something was wrong, so very wrong.

She felt like she was being watched.

"That's ridiculous!" she said out loud. She conjured Dipper again, concentrating on his appearance once more. He reflected her own subconscious nervousness.

"Maybe we should head back now," he suggested in her mind. She blinked and his pose changed to something more imploring. "This place is making me nervous."

"Oh, don't be silly!" Mabel waved her hand dismissively, picking up the last few signs and moving onward. "There's nothing weird going on here," she reassured "him." A new nail was fished from her bag and she set it to start hammering. At the first tap, she immediately noticed something different about this particular tree. Curious, she leaned her ear closer to the tree and tapped it with the hammer. It happened again: the clanging of metal.

Leaning away from the "tree," the young teen looked at it curiously. "Trees aren't supposed to sound like that," she told it. She freed her hands of tools and placed both against the trunk. It even felt weird. It wasn't a tree at all, but rather a metal pole made to look like a tree. She wondered why. Mabel took to patting around on the trunk to see if it was the same all the way around, but a flaw in the metal paused her hand. She wiggled her nails into the crack until she could curl her fingers inside and pulled. The panel creaked with age, a cobweb stretching to snap apart and the smell of dust wafting out of the secret cupboard.

"Whoa! Strange doohickey!" Mabel poked at the levers attached to the rusty, radio-like device, never once thinking of the consequences. Her eyes were bright with wonder - she hadn't seen anything like this except in museums and her dad's old wartime movies. At first, nothing happened - the device made no motion or noise, and it didn't light up at all - but then a noise behind her caught her attention. A portion of the grass was gone, now leaving an open compartment in the ground. Thinking of treasure, she dashed over to it with a grin.

Her hopes were dashed upon looking inside. The opening was empty of all but dust and cobwebs. She leaned down to take a closer look, noticing the faint line in the dust. There had been something in here before. Someone got to it first.

The feeling of wrongness came back very suddenly and with strong force. The feeling of being watched came back as well, stronger than the first time. Mabel stood back up quickly and looked around nervously. Then she turned back and closed the tree panel carefully.

"Let's go," she said to her imaginary twin. "I...I think I've put up enough signs." Snatching up the hammer, she started with a brisk pace back to the Mystery Shack.

* * *

Mabel sighed and flopped down on the bed closest to the door, which happened to be the extra one. The rest of her day had been spent cleaning and restocking the gift shop. It had been a very uneventful day. She almost wished that she had visited last year, during her boy-crazy phase. She could just imagine her twelve-year-old self downstairs, talking with Dipper, expressing her desire for an "epic summer romance" and stubbornly flirting with every boy she met. The thought made her giggle quietly to herself.

She spent a few more minutes resting on the bed then took a deep breath and sighed when she sat up. Time to get ready for bed, she thought to herself. She stretched her arms up and twisted before hopping off of the bed. A creaking noise made her pause. Looking down at the floor, she lifted her foot, then lowered it again. The board creaked and lifted slightly, far looser than the others in the attic. Her face lit up suddenly - what if it was a secret compartment?

Scurrying along the loose board, she knelt down and pried it up. It was surprisingly easy to do. The nails had been forgone completely, or simply removed some time before. The board next to it was loose as well, and Mabel slid it away to further open the floor. Support beams crossed the opening, straw-like insulation filling in most of the space.

"Huh. The perfect hiding spot," Mabel mused. Curious, she dug around for a few minutes between each of the beams, wondering if someone else had thought the same. Just as she was beginning to think she was going to be disappointed, her hand clasped on something solid. She brushed away more of the filling and picked up the book to rest it on her lap. The dusty, tattered old book was red, decorated with gold on the corners and spine. A gold, six-fingered hand rested in the center of the front cover, emblazoned with a numeral three.

"Mabel! Get down here if you want dinner tonight!" She turned her head to the door, clutching the book.

"Coming, Grunkle Stan!" she called out loudly. She set the book aside and swept the insulation back into the floor, replacing the floorboards as well. She stood up and, after a moment of consideration, took the book and slid it beneath her pillow. For now, it would be her secret. At another shout from Stan, she hurried back downstairs.

* * *

It was much later when Mabel settled in for bed. She only remembered the book when she laid back against her pillow. Pulling it out, she propped her pillow up against the wall and settled back, prepared to sate her unending curiosity. She looked over the old cover again, but she never was good at estimating the age of books - it all came down to their caretakers, really. This particular book could be anywhere from two to fifty years old, for all she knew, and she doubted the book had always been in hidden the floorboards.

"Here we go," she said to herself, scooting the lantern a bit closer on the table beside her bed. Mindful of dust, she opened the front cover. A ripped piece of paper rested just inside, reading "Property of," in elegant cursive. The owner's name was missing, and Mabel was just a bit disappointed at not knowing. Though, that did leave her room for theories. Maybe it belonged to Abraham Lincoln! Or Susan B. Anthony!

The young teen caught herself and reigned in her fantastical thoughts, looking at the rest of the page. A monocle had been attached to the inside of the book. Mabel picked it up to give it a short inspection before putting it back and turning to the first page. She was greeted by more fancy cursive, and read the first entry out loud.

" _June 18_ _It's hard to believe it's been six years since I began researching the strange and won'drous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon. In all my travels, never have I observed so many curious things! Gravity Falls is indeed a geographical oddity."_ She blinked. "Won'drous? Who says that anymore?"

Mabel flipped through, skipping to somewhere closer to the middle of the journal and scanning the new page's entry.

" _Unfortunately, my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before He finds it. Remember - In Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust. TRUST NO ONE!"_ She frowned. "Trust no one...? Someone was paranoid. But...who is He?"

Mabel flipped further through the journal, scanning the pages for any clues to the identity of the author or the capitalized "He." The rest of the book was a mix between a sort of diary and a collection of field notes, from what she could tell. It would take time to sift through it all. Then, very suddenly, the writing changed. It was as if the original author had dropped the project, and someone else had come years after and picked it up again. The newer writing was in a printed font and written in purple pen, like the ones she had been so fond of the year before.

" _June 13_ _If you go on enough road trips, chances are you've seen a certain bumper sticker:"_ Here, an image of one of the bumper stickers with the question ' _WHAT IS THE MYSTERY SHACK?'_ has been almost exactly copied onto the page, followed by, " _It's yellow you can't miss it."_ The next page continued on the entry. " _Finally back safe and sound at the from one of the weirdest days of Gravity Falls. This journal told me there was no one in Gravity Falls I could trust, but when you battle a hundred gnomes side by side with someone, you realize they've probably always got your back."_

Confusion crossed Mabel's face as she read over the text a few more times. Gnomes? That wasn't the thing that bothered her, though. The handwriting looked oddly... _familiar_... Its general style - the wording, the font, the meticulous curves and lines - she felt like she had seen it before. She looked up from the book to look over at the empty bed on the other side of the room. A knock brought her gaze over to the door.

"Come in!" she called, quickly marking the book with the monocle and sliding it back beneath her pillow.

"Hey, kid," Grunkle Stan's gruff voice reached her before the door was fully opened. "It's almost one o'clock. What're you doing up so late? Don't you, I dunno, have to keep a schedule or something."

"I'm just reading before I crash, Grunkle Stan," she answered, her voice still cheery, but muted somewhat for the late hour. "I just finished a chapter, so I think I'll go ahead and go to sleep.

"Ah. Alright then." He started to retreat. "Good night, kid."

"Good night, Grunkle Stan!" she replied. The latch clicked as the door was closed. Mabel stared at the door for a long moment before pulling the journal back out and looking at the cover once again. She sighed and set it aside. Whatever mysteries it contained could wait until tomorrow. She reached over and flicked of the bedside lamp.

"Good night, Dipper," she called softly to the other side of the room. Then she closed her eyes.

* * *

 **Important notes about schedule below. Please read!  
This was longer than I intended it to be, but honestly, that's a good thing! I'm going to have to put this on pause for about six weeks because I'm in a play, and I have a main part, so memorizing my lines is going to be difficult. I've also got college classes finishing and a few jobs to get done, but I am by no means abandoning this. If I find time, I may get some work done, but I don't expect to post anything for the next month and a half. Thank you in advance for your patience!**

 **Now, with that out of the way. I'm having a lot of fun with this! My only real concern right now is characterization. I think I'm okay so far, but I'm doubt I'm spot on. Critique is appreciated! I'd love to know how I'm doing. See you guys at the next update!**


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